story: Many of us use them several times a day without really noticing.And yet the way we in lifts,or elevators as they are known in the US,reveals a hidden anxiety. 
  
  Passengers seem to know instinctively how to arrange themselves in an elevator,like the dots on a die.With each additional passenger, the bodies shift,going into the open spaces. 
  
  On your own,you can do whatever you want--it's your own little box.If there are two of you,you take different corners, creating the greatest distance. When a third person enters, you will unconsciously form a triangle .And when there is a square, with someone I every corner.A fifth person is probable going to have to stand in the middle. 
  
  Why are we so awkward in lifts? 
  
  "You don't have enough space," says Professor Babette Renneberg, a clinical psychologist at the Free University of Berlin."Usually when we meet other people we have about an arm's length of distance between us. And that's not possible in most elevators, so it's a very unusual setting. It's unnatural." 
  
  But perhaps there is more to it than just social awkwardness. 
  
  "In the back of our minds we are a little anxious," says Nick White,an office in New York who was unfortunate enough to be trapped in a lift for41 hours. "We don't like to be locked into a place.We want to get out of the elevator as soon as possible, you know, it's a frightening place to be." 
  
  During his terrible experience, he began to think of another encloses space-a tomb. 
  
  Dr.Lee Gray agrees that a sense of disempowerment is the main cause of life anxiety. 
  
  "You're in a machine that's moving, over which you have no control. You cannot see the elevator engine, you don't know how it's working," he says.
questions: What is the primary device mentioned here?
questions: What can you do when you're in one alone?
questions: Do two folks generally hang out close to each other?
questions: What about three folks?
questions: And four?
questions: What happens to a 5th?
questions: Why is it weirder than in other social places?
questions: According to whom?
questions: Are there any other reasons it's uncomfortable?
questions: Who said that?
questions: What can one of these devices feel like?
questions: How controlling can you be in one?
questions: Do you feel empowered?
questions: Who makes this claim?
questions: How often to a lot of folks ride these devices?
answers: lifts,or elevators
answers:  lifts,or elevators
answers: whatever you want
answers: whatever you want
answers: you take different corners
answers: you take different corners
answers: you will unconsciously form a triangle
answers:  you will unconsciously form a triangle
answers: a square
answers: a square
answers: stand in the middle
answers: stand in the middle
answers: You don't have enough space
answers: You don't have enough space
answers: Babette Renneberg
answers: Babette Renneberg
answers: we are a little anxious
answers: we are a little anxious
answers: Nick White
answers: Nick White
answers: a tomb
answers: a tomb
answers: you have no control.
answers: you have no control.
answers: a sense of disempowerment
answers: a sense of disempowerment
answers: Dr.Lee Gray
answers: Dr.Lee Gray
answers: several times a day
answers: several times a day 